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"I need a new PC!" 2010 Edition
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Haint
Member
MoxManiac said:
I paid $800 for an i7 720 + 230M laptop back in December. Even with the GPU OC'ed 30%, performance is basically a wash with PS360 titles. I fully expected that, but the convenience of the laptop is a big disappointment It is way too much trouble lugging around the power brick/cooling plate and unhooking the mouse/kb every time I want to put it on a TV.
Budget: 900 / 1000 (around $1200 I think) + France
Main Use: Watching TV shows in HD, Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1200 I guess ? It's mainly for Starcraft II. I don't really know, you tell me.
Games that you MUST be able to play: STARCRAFT II.
I think I'll need 4go on Windows Seven 64 bits and one of these : http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/starcraft_ii_wings_of_liberty_beta_performance,4.html
But for the rest I don't really know what I should be looking for. Anyway, please help me GAF. I don't want to spend 800 in a computer, only to find out at the end of July that I can't run SCII properly.
Main Use: Watching TV shows in HD, Gaming
Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1200 I guess ? It's mainly for Starcraft II. I don't really know, you tell me.
Games that you MUST be able to play: STARCRAFT II.
I think I'll need 4go on Windows Seven 64 bits and one of these : http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/starcraft_ii_wings_of_liberty_beta_performance,4.html
But for the rest I don't really know what I should be looking for. Anyway, please help me GAF. I don't want to spend 800 in a computer, only to find out at the end of July that I can't run SCII properly.
Minsc
Gold Member
Archie said:
I'd say about every 3-4 months under normal conditions is the most you'd want to take some compressed air and dust (3-4 times a year). Some people never do, twice a year would be my minimum personally.
Make sure you hold the compressed air upright when you use it, or else you'll end up shooting water all over your computer! It's easy to be tempted to turn it 90 degrees to get harder areas, but be careful not too!
Norua said:
You want a 1080p display for Starcraft 2, they'll be more abundant and cheaper. You get more visual area w/ 1080p than 1200p in that game.
If you can manage an i7 930 or i7 860, those will do the best as far as the beta stands. The game benefits a lot from the i7 line, and a bit from hyperthreading, but the cores make little difference after 2. Ideally you'd want to overclock them to 3.2ghz or higher, so plan on getting custom cooling.
Video card, I'd go with anything over / including a 5770, whatever you find for the best price in your budget. If you can swing a 5850 or GTX 465 in a couple of weeks that may be best.
This could all change at retail or with an expansion, I personally feel there's a lot of optimization left to take place, especially if they rework the engine a bit to use more cores.
The Lamonster
Member
I love how often StarCraft II is mentioned in this thread :lol
game will be so awesome
game will be so awesome
professor_t said:
That i7 860 build seems a bit wonky. Go with an i5 750 instead, you won't notice a difference and a cheaper board like the one on PCPers mid range build page Add a 5850 to the i5, dump the dedicated audio card you have no need for it and with the price difference grab the pieces that aren't included in the build. I believe the TR build was also using a 140$ case or something ridiculous like that, A 60$ Antec 300 will do the exact same thing for you. and the Corsair 650W will be plenty for you no need to use the 750W unit that PCPer has up.
It could be prudent to wait a week or two for these sites to update their building guides as the market has changed quite a bit since the Fermi cards were released.
My reply is pretty distracted and i'm rambling but you also won't need a network card, your motherboard will cover all that just fine on its own. Maybe i'll get started on a quickie build for you. You'd rather have quality components in your machine than the bottom of the barrel components you'll find in pre built machines.
Edit:
The motherboard should be swapped out for one like on the PCPer build that has USB 3.0 (Might have had SATA 6Gbps) but you're looking at 100$ less for a machine that will serve you much better, and a way better mouse too. You won't have to ever buy another case, power supply again (until something breaks heh), kb/m etc, and your memory will likely last you your next build as well. You'll be able to overclock to performance levels far higher than the i7 860 and building a PC is as easy as building with lego.
RMAs can be an annoyance though, but you can always buy your components from a local brick and mortar store and simply return/exchange if there are any problems.
Well if you aren't going to make compromises on any of your must haves you'll want an i5($200) + a $170 (or more) graphics card. That eats quite a bit of your budget.Linkhero1 said:
Something such as this: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/4
You can get an AMD quad but it won't run Dolphin quite AS well, but it'll bring down the cost by about $100
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/2Mr. Snrub said:
I am not a big fan of Crossfire and a single 4850 at that resolution is darn good.
If you still need a card and aren't worried about power draw or DX10, the 4870 you can buy off of tigerdirect. Otherwise a 5770 is the card to get.
Minsc
Gold Member
Hazaro said:Well if you aren't going to make compromises on any of your must haves you'll want an i5($200) + a $170 (or more) graphics card. That eats quite a bit of your budget.
Something such as this: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/4
You can get an AMD quad but it won't run Dolphin quite AS well, but it'll bring down the cost by about $100
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/2
I am not a big fan of Crossfire and a single 4850 at that resolution is darn good.
If you still need a card and aren't worried about power draw or DX10, the 4870 you can buy off of tigerdirect. Otherwise a 5770 is the card to get.
5770 is $150 on newegg, 4870 is $160 on tigerdirect. You can actually get a 1GB GTS 250 for $100 off newegg ($115 before rebate), that's probably the best buy for your money right now (although sliiiightly slower), unless there's some other crazy deal.
professor_t
Member
Shambles said:
I dropped the ball on this one. I bought the pre-built PC like an over-eager jackass (though, in my defense, I've been holding off for quite a while).
When everything is said and done, I suppose I just preferred the safer, less sexy route. I'm more risk averse when I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I appreciate the help, however, and the build you put together is better than I anticipated at the $1000-1100 price point.
Oh I don't mind if it goes over my budget as long as it can do what I want. I just wanted to see if I can get it for pretty cheap. I don't plan on buying the parts until mid-summer.Hazaro said:Well if you aren't going to make compromises on any of your must haves you'll want an i5($200) + a $170 (or more) graphics card. That eats quite a bit of your budget.
Something such as this: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/4
You can get an AMD quad but it won't run Dolphin quite AS well, but it'll bring down the cost by about $100
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/2
I am not a big fan of Crossfire and a single 4850 at that resolution is darn good.
If you still need a card and aren't worried about power draw or DX10, the 4870 you can buy off of tigerdirect. Otherwise a 5770 is the card to get.
Alright GAF, I'm coming to you for professional help today.
I work as an all around tech guy at a small gaming related store. Mostly I just do basic repairs, system cleanup, that sort of stuff, but today I got a much more specific and unusual customer. A high school kid wants a computer built for him... but not just any computer, he wants something special that he can show off to his friends. He originally wanted to spend $5,000 (?!) on this thing, and I finally managed to talk him down to a slightly more reasonable price of $2,500. I also talked him out of a liquid cooling system, because living in Florida, condensation would be an ever present threat.
GAF, this kid has a budget of $2500, he wants a status symbol computer to show off with, and his main request was that it has to run Bad Company 2 at 70 frames or higher. I seriously can't fathom how to spend a budget like this. You're my only hope.
I work as an all around tech guy at a small gaming related store. Mostly I just do basic repairs, system cleanup, that sort of stuff, but today I got a much more specific and unusual customer. A high school kid wants a computer built for him... but not just any computer, he wants something special that he can show off to his friends. He originally wanted to spend $5,000 (?!) on this thing, and I finally managed to talk him down to a slightly more reasonable price of $2,500. I also talked him out of a liquid cooling system, because living in Florida, condensation would be an ever present threat.
GAF, this kid has a budget of $2500, he wants a status symbol computer to show off with, and his main request was that it has to run Bad Company 2 at 70 frames or higher. I seriously can't fathom how to spend a budget like this. You're my only hope.
autobzooty
Member
I've been trying to overclock my CPU today, but I think I may have seriously damaged my computer...
I looked up some guides on what settings to use for my particular CPU. I tried a bunch of settings, but it wasn't working. The computer would turn on and the fans would start, but it wouldn't boot.
So after fiddling with the settings for a little while, I opened up the case to see what the motherboard's error code reported to see if I could get a better idea of what I needed to change for the overclock. According to the error code (which I referenced in the mobo manual), there wasn't enough voltage going into the DRAM. So I reset the CMOS and tried it again.
I started incrementally increasing the voltage of the DRAM by about 0.05 volts at a time to see if I could get that error code to go away. I got up to about 1.75 volts and it still wasn't working. I shut it off and reset the CMOS one last time, but now the computer won't boot up. Usually after resetting the CMOS, it would go back to normal with no trouble at all. I'm worried that I might have added too much voltage, even though according to the manual, I still hadn't added enough.
The computer would pop to life for a fraction of a second when I pressed the power button, and if I pressed and held the power and reset buttons simultaneously, it would run for about 10-15 seconds (or until I let go of either button) before shutting down. Nothing would boot during this time, but the fans spin and the computer comes to life a bit. Presently though, I can't even get that tiny semblence of life to show. It's completely dead across the board. No lights, no fan, no power, no nothing. So did I fry my motherboard, fry my RAM, or is it something else? Am I screwed?
I don't think I did anything that crazy, considering I had the option to go MUCH MUCH higher on the DRAM voltage, and it only started at like 1.3 or 1.4 volts. The guide I was using told me to go up to roughly 1.6, and I really didn't go that far beyond that. Plus I was only doing what my mobo manual told me to. So I'm not really sure why this happened....does anyone have any ideas?
I looked up some guides on what settings to use for my particular CPU. I tried a bunch of settings, but it wasn't working. The computer would turn on and the fans would start, but it wouldn't boot.
So after fiddling with the settings for a little while, I opened up the case to see what the motherboard's error code reported to see if I could get a better idea of what I needed to change for the overclock. According to the error code (which I referenced in the mobo manual), there wasn't enough voltage going into the DRAM. So I reset the CMOS and tried it again.
I started incrementally increasing the voltage of the DRAM by about 0.05 volts at a time to see if I could get that error code to go away. I got up to about 1.75 volts and it still wasn't working. I shut it off and reset the CMOS one last time, but now the computer won't boot up. Usually after resetting the CMOS, it would go back to normal with no trouble at all. I'm worried that I might have added too much voltage, even though according to the manual, I still hadn't added enough.
The computer would pop to life for a fraction of a second when I pressed the power button, and if I pressed and held the power and reset buttons simultaneously, it would run for about 10-15 seconds (or until I let go of either button) before shutting down. Nothing would boot during this time, but the fans spin and the computer comes to life a bit. Presently though, I can't even get that tiny semblence of life to show. It's completely dead across the board. No lights, no fan, no power, no nothing. So did I fry my motherboard, fry my RAM, or is it something else? Am I screwed?
I don't think I did anything that crazy, considering I had the option to go MUCH MUCH higher on the DRAM voltage, and it only started at like 1.3 or 1.4 volts. The guide I was using told me to go up to roughly 1.6, and I really didn't go that far beyond that. Plus I was only doing what my mobo manual told me to. So I'm not really sure why this happened....does anyone have any ideas?
$300 for SLi motherboardvid said:
$1000 for SLi GTX 480's
$250 for i7-860/920
$200 Dual 1.5TB drives
$300 Intel 80GB Xtreme for OS
$300 LianLi Case (Or that funky tower)
$80 for bling fans
$300 for 16GB of RAM
$120 sound card
$100 for glow in the dark / UV lighting cables whatever
_______
That's $3,000 right there.
Spending money is the easiest thing in the world
professor_t
Member
Well, it didn't take long for me to get a reminder of why I haven't kept up with PC gaming. I installed Crysis on the new PC and it apparently ran in 480p. I closed it down and restarted it, and now it's running in a window in the top 2/3 of my monitor, and I can still see the desktop in the bottom 1/3. It also looks kinda like shit. Of course, it's a moot point, because the mouse cursor doesn't line up with the menus, so I can't even select options (if, for example, I wanted to change the graphics settings).
I started things off by installing (or trying to install) the latest drivers for the radeon 5850, but perhaps that backfired. I also installed the latest directx drivers, but given that I'm using Windows 7, that may have been a mistake as well (it probably already had the latest drivers).
Any suggestions? Is this probably a driver issue? Is there any way to check if the graphics card is working properly? Can I start from scratch? I'm completely lost and completely desperate to give Crysis a spin this evening, though that's seeming more and more unlikely.
I started things off by installing (or trying to install) the latest drivers for the radeon 5850, but perhaps that backfired. I also installed the latest directx drivers, but given that I'm using Windows 7, that may have been a mistake as well (it probably already had the latest drivers).
Any suggestions? Is this probably a driver issue? Is there any way to check if the graphics card is working properly? Can I start from scratch? I'm completely lost and completely desperate to give Crysis a spin this evening, though that's seeming more and more unlikely.
Adding to what Hazaro said, TechReport already did it for you!: http://techreport.com/articles.x/18747/8vid said:
Wow that was fast :lolprofessor_t said:
Install the latest video card drivers from nvidia or ati for you proper operating system.
Then go under settings and make sure everything is set on fullscreen + high.
If you installed Crysis it should have installed Direct X for you. I think Catalyst 10.4 is the most recent out.
Their CPU is stupid and need more GPU power. Might wanna get a 160GB Intel drive though.Halycon said:
Very scary.Orellio said:
Look at an x8 Sidewinder or Razer Mamba (or others for a mouse), and maybe a nice KB. Toss in dual 24" LCD's and you can easily hit 5k.
This would not be able to run BC2 at 70 fps in 1080p with max settings, 8xAA, etc. (though, that's a ridiculously arbitrary requirement the kid wants). Needs a 5970 at least. And like Hazaro said, that CPU is a ridiculous waste of money. Well the kid has more money than sense anyways...Halycon said:
Dusting off the mobo with some compressed air might help. If that doesn't there are a few soundcards out on the market. I'm sure any would be a nice upgrade.JRW said:
I have an AV-710 my self and despite it being a $20 card from 2001 or something it is a noticeable difference (surprised me actually).
If you aren't looking at $5 PCI sound cards from 1998 the Xonar and various flavors of the X-Fi are what is good right now. If you don't have expensive headphones or an amp I'd go with a cheap X-Fi. (I'm not an audio person so you might want to wait or head on over to www.head-fi.org )
autobzooty
Member
Hazaro said:
I'm glad to hear that I didn't do something stupid by mistake, but I've already tried resetting the CMOS and that didn't help. And again, I can't even get the fans to come on anymore. There is absolutely NO power running through my machine at this point. What could have caused this? The other settings I chose were pretty conservative as well....Certainly nothing extreme enough to cause a hardware failure I don't think. I'll post what I did:
CPU Voltage - 1.25
CPU VTT - 1.26
DRAM Voltage - Started at 1.62, went up incrementally to roughly 1.75, as I said.
BLCK - 191
Turbo DIsabled
This doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would totally ruin my hardware, does it? Seems pretty conservative compared to what I've seen other people do with my CPU (an Intel Core i7 920, btw).
Someone please tell me I'm not screwed. I've never seen a computer look as dead as mine looks right now, but I can't for the life of me figure out the cause of death. Is there a chance to save it?
Edit: A guy on an Anandtech thread I made about this problem says that going over 1.65 volts on the dram is a bad idea. However, I still can't tell if I've done any irreversable damage or not. And if I did break something, what did I break? I'd like to know if I just need to replace a certain part (hopefully not the CPU...) or if this is something that can be fixed with a little elbow grease. I'm stressing pretty hard about this right now....I guess I need to walk away from it for a bit. Here's the link to that thread, btw. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29847917&posted=1
what are the best pre-built gaming computers?
in the end, i'll probably just build something and upgrade as i get more money. assuming my current psu and ram would work, i could salvage and just buy a case, mobo, cpu, heatsink, HDD for now.
however, i want to look at some pre-built ones to finance. for one, how well does the current imac play the top pc games from the past few quarters in bootcamp?
edit: wait, newegg has financing? http://promotions.newegg.com/Newegg/PA110708/index.html?cm_mmc=OTC-BMLSpring10-_-LP-_-NA-_-NA
in the end, i'll probably just build something and upgrade as i get more money. assuming my current psu and ram would work, i could salvage and just buy a case, mobo, cpu, heatsink, HDD for now.
however, i want to look at some pre-built ones to finance. for one, how well does the current imac play the top pc games from the past few quarters in bootcamp?
edit: wait, newegg has financing? http://promotions.newegg.com/Newegg/PA110708/index.html?cm_mmc=OTC-BMLSpring10-_-LP-_-NA-_-NA
metareferential
Member
Guys, I've finally put together a good budget for a new gaming rig.
I'm interested in trying out 3D vision from nvidia so I'm planning to buy a gtx480, and managed to find some stores were I live that have them in stock (not an easy task).
Other than that I'm planning to buy a i5 720; I'll be playing on a 22" 1680x1050 (for 3D gaming) and on a 1920x1080 42" Panasonic plasma depending on the occasion.
Any advice on specific other components I should get?
Am I going crazy spending roughly 800+ euros just to try 3D stuff? xD
I'm interested in trying out 3D vision from nvidia so I'm planning to buy a gtx480, and managed to find some stores were I live that have them in stock (not an easy task).
Other than that I'm planning to buy a i5 720; I'll be playing on a 22" 1680x1050 (for 3D gaming) and on a 1920x1080 42" Panasonic plasma depending on the occasion.
Any advice on specific other components I should get?
Am I going crazy spending roughly 800+ euros just to try 3D stuff? xD
Minsc
Gold Member
DeathNote said:
They come with up to a 4850, if you got that, you could expect to get around 1/2 to 1/3 of the average framerate you'd be getting w/ a 5870 or GTX 470. The minimum framerates (dips) would be around 1/4th.
So a game that runs at 60fps on a 5870 with dips to 40, would likely run at 20-30 fps on a 4850, with dips to single digits, forcing you to lower the quality a bit.
See here.
Unfortunately, they come with a gimped version of the 4850, completely inadequate for high res gaming due to the 512MB of RAM, they will fall apart at 2560 x 1440, as you can see, the site doesn't even review for those resolutions w/ that card, probably because the games are 100% unplayable, so you'd have to deal with scaling your image to your monitor whenever you play, lowering the quality a bit.
that just wont do at all. thanks for the info. now that i see i can finance with newegg, i'll just build one.Minsc said:
i'm looking it cases. i want one with a irremovable back plate for easy heatsink replacement. I found the Corsair Obsidian Series 800D for $269 but that's too expensive.
anything else cheaper?
GHG
Member
metareferential said:
No your not crazy. Its totally worth it, the money I've spent has been totally justified. Its changed my gaming experience. Will never go back to 2D gaming. Never.
On a related note, 3D gaming really is a rig killer (I'm doing it in 1080p and my poor superoverclocked 260 GTX just can't keep up on games like crysis). I now want to upgrade my GPU and I'm considering a 5970 or going 5870/5850 crossfire (I use Tridef and IZ3D 3D drivers so I'm not stuck with Nvidia).
Was considering GTX470 SLI but the kicker is my motherboard doesn't support SLI and with Nvidia taking their time over releasing the 495 GTX I've decided I may well be jumoing ship. What would be the better solution. Granted, I'll need to upgrade my PSU (550W wont cut it obviously... or will it??) and I think my case is big enough for the 5970 should I decide to go that route. Anyone got any comparison benchies for the 5970 against crossfire 5870's?
Also... microstuttering. How bad is it with crossfire or multi-GPU solutions? Anyone got any experiences with it? Would it be worse with the 5970 or 5870 crossfire?
Come on guys help me spend mah money :lol .
metareferential
Member
GHG said:No your not crazy. Its totally worth it, the money I've spent has been totally justified. Its changed my gaming experience. Will never go back to 2D gaming. Never.
On a related note, 3D gaming really is a rig killer (I'm doing it in 1080p and my poor superoverclocked 260 GTX just can't keep up). I now want to upgrade my GPU and I'm considering a 5970 or going 5870/5850 crossfire (I use Tridef and IZ3D 3D drivers so I'm not stuck with Nvidia).
Was considering GTX470 SLI but the kicker is my motherboard doesn't support SLI and with Nvidia taking their time over releasing the 495 GTX I've decided I may well be jumoing ship. What would be the better solution. Granted, I'll need to upgrade my PSU (550W wont cut it obviously... or will it??) and I think my case is big enough for the 5970 should I decide to go that route. Anyone got any comparison benchies for the 5970 against crossfire 5870's?
Also... microstuttering. How bad is it with crossfire or multi-GPU solutions? Anyone got any experiences with it? Would it be worse with the 5970 or 5870 crossfire?
Come on guys help me spend mah money :lol .
To use Tridef and IZ3D drivers I still need a 120hz display though, right? What about the glasses?
EDIT: I remember you posting in the 3d discussion thread about this but I'm not sure I got everything right.
GHG
Member
metareferential said:
Right. I decided to skip right over the 120hz and shutter route and went with the Zalman M215W. Recent review here ---> http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM-M215W/1.html . Official site here ---> http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=384
Totally agree with everything they say. Especially the bit about the IZ3D drivers. If you decide to go an alternative route to Nvidia's 3D vision go with the Tridef drivers rather than the IZ3D ones. They are infinately better and you can get just about every game working flawlessly with minimal tweaking. The same cannot be said of Nvidia's 3D vision drivers and that certainly can't be said about IZ3D's drivers which are not very noob friendly at all (it is infact the IZ3D drivers what is delaying me in getting an official 3D thread up on here with tutorials). The viewing angle which they mention is a slight issue, but remember you're using this as a PC monitor, at a desk. Set your chair to the right height, never change the height/remeber the height and voila, perfect comforatble viewing angle every time. Basically, the centre of the monitor has to be at head height.
The monitor itself isn't cheap (but still its cheaper than 1080p 120hz monitors) and the best bit; they come with 2 pairs (well more like 1 and a half) of glasses and the glassses aren't expensive and don't require charging. They are basically the same polarized glasses that you'd get in IMAX, so as you'd imagine, buying aditional pairs for other people is cheap and easy. With Nvidia's solution you need to spend a LOT on the glasses as you'd aready know.
Because of all this you aren't tied into a single GPU manufacturer unlike with 120hz and 3D vision. So you will be free to change in the future and not lose 3D. IZ3D and Tridef aren't going anywhere and are actually better than 3D Vision in terms of game support. In the future the 3D party drivers wont even be necessary because games and movies will have native 3D support (see Avatar the game and Youtube's recent 3D upgrade).
Contrary to what Nvidia have made everyone think, you can get 3D without silly overpriced 120hz monitors and silly overpriced shutter glasses and its every bit as good if not better than their proprietary shit. Its more flexible, has better support and the 3D quality is actually better (you get less ghosting with other solutions).
Also. A major thing here; The 120hz monitors do not have HDCP support. That means no native blu-ray support and certainly no native 3D blu-ray. All the people with 3D vision will have to again, go through Nvidia (probably via the online store) to watch 3D HD movies when they start coming out later this year instead of being able to just hook up a blu-ray player (or put a drive in their computer) to their monitor.
There's also software out there to convert any (and I mean any here *nudge*
) video from 2D to 3D: http://3dfier.blogspot.com/ It works very, very well and I now watch everything in 3D.Sorry for the long post, but bottom line, if your going 3D go with one of the new Zalman monitors. You'll thank yourself later.
I just cannot beieve what Nvidia have made everyone think in terms of 3D. They are not the only solution out there, and they certainly aren't the best. Most expensive? Yeh I'll give 'em that one.
I'll start a proper 3D gaming thread up in the next couple of weeks (have finals at the moment so busy) and will elaborate more about the stuff above so that GAF is properly informed (and has a go-to thread) about this 3D stuff.
metareferential
Member
Thanks!
I thought that the Zalman monitor would have been difficult to find where I live, instead I found out that it is available and cheaper then the Samsung one I was going to buy.
Now I really don't know what to do xD
I guess I'll just buy the new gpu and then decide on the monitor. GTX 480 it shall be, then.
If I read the specs correctly, the Zalman won't accept the 120hz signal coming from hdmi, right?
The Zalman solution is really tempting. Cheaper and with two pair of glasses included. The only concern I have is that heaving tried both passive and active 3d, I find the latter to be much, much better (talking about movies, of course).
I thought that the Zalman monitor would have been difficult to find where I live, instead I found out that it is available and cheaper then the Samsung one I was going to buy.
Now I really don't know what to do xD
I guess I'll just buy the new gpu and then decide on the monitor. GTX 480 it shall be, then.
If I read the specs correctly, the Zalman won't accept the 120hz signal coming from hdmi, right?
The Zalman solution is really tempting. Cheaper and with two pair of glasses included. The only concern I have is that heaving tried both passive and active 3d, I find the latter to be much, much better (talking about movies, of course).
GHG
Member
metareferential said:
Its not 120hz because as you said its passive, not active 3D. Its a 60hz monitor that does 3D by using line interlacing technology (http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/images/3d/3D_Resource_Directory.pdf - see the last page). If you get a HDMI to DVI converter it will work fine if you need to use HDMI. If not just use DVI direct from your GPU.
Out of interest what are your specs now? Because I'd suggest holding off getting a GPU now and getting the monitor 1st. Reason being so you can try out all the driver software and see which one you prefer 1st. If its not Nvidia's driver that you like best then you're free to use an ATI card (I wouldn't suggest getting a 480GTX over a 5870 unless you want to use 3D vision specifically).
GHG
Member
I currently get 10fps in Crysis in 3D at 1080p with no AA (double that number for non 3D purposes) on a 260 GTX overclocked to GTX 275 levels. So basically, I need to treble that purformence at that res. Is the 5970 my only realistic option or can I shoot lower? What framerates do you guys with 5870's or 5850's get with no AA at 1080p?
Also if I get the 5970 I could always add a 5850 later down the road and end up with this:
What to do...?
Also if I get the 5970 I could always add a 5850 later down the road and end up with this:
What to do...?
metareferential
Member
GHG said:
I don't have actual specs, I'm building a new pc from scratch.
So the temptation to go all crazy and buy a 5970 with the zalman monitor is strong indeed xD
So is the other option, samsung 120hz and nvidia 3d vision, coupled with a gtx480.
GHG
Member
metareferential said:
Ah ok, fair enough. Go all out then, you'll regret it if not. I tried Crysis maxed out in 3D yesterday at that stuttering 10fps framerate I'm getting and it brought a tear to my eye. It was so damn glorious :lol . As a result I now need to upgrade my GPU.
I told myself not to try that game in 3D because I knew this would happen...
metareferential
Member
GHG said:
That is another advantage of the samsung monitor: lower resolution, so better performances. I guess.
Minsc
Gold Member
GHG said:I currently get 10fps in Crysis in 3D at 1080p with no AA (double that number for non 3D purposes) on a 260 GTX overclocked to GTX 275 levels. So basically, I need to treble that purformence at that res. Is the 5970 my only realistic option or can I shoot lower? What framerates do you guys with 5870's or 5850's get with no AA at 1080p?
Also if I get the 5970 I could always add a 5850 later down the road and end up with this:
[]http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4394/cwruns.jpg[/IMG]
What to do...?
A 5870 won't cut it for Crysis @ Ethusiast even without 3D, you need to go higher, so you'd be looking at SLI or XFire or a 5970 for sure.
GHG
Member
Minsc said:
Yeh having done some more digging I've come to realise that. Decided to go the 5970 route and then add a 5850 (if I need to) at somepoint down the line for trifire when there's a game I can't max in the future. Thats the most logical way but the 5970 should be enough for now in 3D (with Crysis, Metro and Arma 2). If I go crossfire 5870/5850 right off the bat I have no cheap upgrade path and will have to sell off what I have to upgrade, not the best way to go about it from a value point of view. Plus 5970's are cheaper now than getting crossfire.
Time to gather those bones for a 5970 and new PSU.
Can anyone recommend a decent Bluetooth mouse? Just looking for one to surf the Internet while my laptop is hooked up to the tv. Maybe some slight gaming. Trying not to spend over $40-50.
Also, has anyone have experience using a wireless Bluetooth aluminum apple keyboard on windows 7? I need a low profile keyboard and the apple one just looks great.
Also, has anyone have experience using a wireless Bluetooth aluminum apple keyboard on windows 7? I need a low profile keyboard and the apple one just looks great.
metareferential
Member
GHG said:
Well, considering that 3D now is a big problem performance-wise at high resolutions, I really don't mind a little "downgrade" in that department.
1680X1050 though is a fairly high resolution considering we have to render every frame twice.
Besides, I already have a 1080p display.
Hard choices to be made. xD
Considering there isn't a one and only 3d standard yet, it's difficult to choose wisely.
evil solrac v3.0
Member
MoxManiac said:
get a desktop, i command it.
Minsc
Gold Member
evil solrac v3.0
Member
GHG said:
if you use a 5970, you can use a 5850 for crossfire?
